Page 82 of Bold

Dessie coughed but mostly covered up his laughter. “I didn’t know you could dry clean suitcases either.”

“I had to start buying a new one for every trip and she finally found other ways to torture me. The local foster program appreciated all of them once she stopped harassing me and I only needed my regular set again.” They’d never had anyone donate ten almost brand-new suitcases before.

So I’d felt guilty and had to send them a dozen more.

Dessie buried his face against my neck and took a deep breath. He managed not to laugh, though. “Okay, Daddy. You’ve made your point.”

“Thank you.” Turning my head, I gave him a quick peck on his neck since that was the only part I could easily reach. “Now, are you ready to have breakfast? But please be forewarned, I might die of hunger if you aren’t.”

And the giggles escaped that time.

But he also sat up and smiled, looking much more relaxed. “I’m ready. I’m not in New York and I’m not Austin and I just have cute pink flags like being an attention whore and slightly dramatic.”

Rolling my eyes got another laugh from my adorable worrier, but it also gave him a push to climb off my lap and bounce excitedly. “Breakfast and coffee and attention and then we’ll finish planning out our day.”

“Yes.” Standing, I gave him another kiss as I took his hand. “Then we’ll have fun later if you’re a good boy.”

I made sure to stroke the front of his pants with my free hand to make sure he understood what I was talking about. His needy moan was quickly cut off by a frown and the most adorable glare. “I can’t be hard when I meet her. No pats or rubs or teasing comments, Daddy.”

Hmm.

No safeword in sight.

“We’ll see.” That response had his cheeks going pink and he rolled his eyes. Still not a safeword. But I did check on the fit of his pants and adjusted his erection slightly and made sure his T-shirt wasn’t catching on the front of his pants. “There. That’s not noticeable.”

Unless she was at eye level with his dick, he’d be fine.

And I double-checked that as I stood up.

Yep.

Dessie seemed happy with that answer even though he’d gone back to being dramatic, sighing and huffing and even throwing in the occasional eye roll. “She’s going to notice and then think I’m a needy attention whore.”

I was smart enough not to respond to that but he still glared at me. “I know what you’re thinking.”

That hewasa needy attention whore.

“You’ll never be Austin-level frustrating, so just keep that in mind.” She’d met him and hadn’t been impressed.

Austin had tried to steal her from me, though.

So he was a needy attention whore with good taste and bad decision-making.

All things I’d already known.

Dessie sighed again. “No one is as wonderful as Austin.”

He was adorable but delusional.

“Come on.” Kissing his head, I led us toward the door. “It’s going to be fine. I’ll make introductions. We’ll probably talk a bit. Then she’ll tell me she can’t stand around keeping me entertained all day. At that point, she’ll probably make a joke that it’s your job now. Then she’ll grumble about how much work there is to do.”

For some reason that made Dessie’s shoulders come down and I could feel the tension leaving him. “Okay, so she’s a less fabulous version of Austin when he’s in business mode. Got it.”

For fuck’s sake.

“I did not need that image in my head.” Grumbling as I reached for the door, I glared at my giggling sub. “No spankings for you for doing that to me.”

That didn’t stop his giggles and he was still smiling as we walked into the kitchen. Of course, it got slightly forced as Sofie came into view but he was doing his best, so I did my best to pretend it was fine. “Good morning, Sofie. I would like to introduce you to Dessie. He hasn’t let me put a label on our relationship yet.”

---